#111 | LEGO Kicks Off Metaversal Partnership with Epic Games

Estimated Read Time: 8 minutes

Hey friends,

Welcome back to this edition of Morning NFTea! Today, we have curated some great stories showcasing Web3’s continued adoption: from a LEGO Metaverse, Americana’s new collectibles platform, and Ronaldo’s fan-focused NFTs. Let’s jump in!

A couple of editions ago, we covered the absolutely huge news of the world’s largest athletic apparel company Nike teaming up with the world’s most popular game Fortnite to bring NFT sneakers to Epic Games’ flagship title. Well, if we thought it couldn't get bigger than that, Epic Games is one-upping itself through a new partnership with the world’s most valuable toy brand Lego for the early stages of a family-friendly Metaverse.

Joining forces at the Cannes Lions Festival to discuss their shared vision for the metaverse and propose standards for a new age experience. Lego and Epic Games are hoping to reignite the Metaverse conversation by combining their expertise to create a safe and engaging digital space for children. The two companies have not yet revealed any specific details about their plans for the metaverse, but they have said that it will be a place where children can "build, create, and explore together", they have also said that it will be a safe and positive space for children to learn and grow.

This isn't Lego’s first foray with Epic’s Unreal Engine which has been used to design packaging, marketing materials, content series, and even digital twins of Lego pieces to let designers and communities create amazing digital experiences. They are looking to expand this further with a “Metaverse” where the aim is for accessibility across various devices, interoperability, fairness, transparency, and a focus on community creativity.

The partnership is no doubt a huge vote of confidence in the future of Web3, both Lego and Epic Games are some of the most influential companies in the world and their commitment to a Web3 future shows signs of how the metaverse is not just a dream, but a real and growing possibility. Even if a Lego Metaverse doesn't tickle your fancy, one can only imagine the pressure and confidence it could put on other companies to follow suit with Web3 which could lead to the development of new and innovative Metaverse experiences all built on our beloved NFTs.

The concept of people collecting things they find valuable is a human trait that comes long before any official “collecting industry”, and just as NFTs are disrupting every corner of the world you could think of, Americana.io’s new platform is going to take collecting physical assets to a new level.

Americana's collectibles platform separates itself from the traditional industry by using blockchain technology to create a secure and transparent way to buy, sell, and trade both physical and digital collectibles through NFTs. One of the most exciting things about Americana.io is its ability to connect physical and digital assets. This means that you can own a physical collectible, such as a piece of art or a rare trading card, and also have a digital representation of that asset on the blockchain. This digital representation can be used to prove ownership of the asset, to trade it with other collectors, or to even use it in virtual worlds like our aforementioned Lego Metaverse one day.

Americana CEO Jake Frey says “At Americana, we empower physical pieces with digital luxuries. Bridging the gap, we bring the excitement of the digital world to physical collectibles. It’s about merging the best of both realms for a better experience”. And they really want to bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3 because they recently announced a slew of partnerships with some of the biggest names in the collectible world. These partnerships include Tom Sachs, Vinnie Hagar, Andrew Wang, and Alexis Ohanian. These partnerships are a major coup for Americana.io, and they show that the platform is serious about becoming the go-to destination for collectors.

In our Morning NFTea whitepaper, we made the bold claim that “Ensuring the authenticity and ownership of literally anything in the physical or digital world will undoubtedly be an NFT”. This was a tough pill to swallow when looking at all the physical possessions around us, but with platforms like Americana pioneering seamless ways for NFTs to represent both physical and digital items, we really are at the forefront of a new era of collecting.

Binance, the world's leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, has partnered with Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the greatest footballers of all time, to launch a new NFT collection that potentially marks a turning point for the ways fans can interact with their sporting heroes. After Binances first collaboration with Ronaldo became the most successful athlete NFT collection of all time, Ronaldo is back for another round with his new ‘Forever CR7: The GOAT’ collection featuring a series of digital artworks that celebrate Ronaldo’s career and accomplishments.

Launching with a massive 29,327K NFTs on July 3rd, 20 of Ronaldos greatest ever-goalscoring moments will be transformed into digital NFT artworks backed by a range of holder benefits. The drop will consist of 4 tiers of rarity, Super Super Rare (SSR), Super Rare (SR), Rare (R) and Normal (N) with the ForeverCR7 box containing 7 NFTs only costing $10. On this collection, Ronaldo says “It is great to have the opportunity to collaborate again with Binance on this project for my fans, especially those that have cheered me on since those early goals” with Binance sharing a similar sentiment saying “we wanted to keep building and creating more value for our community with this second collection”. This “more value” comes from the NFTs unlocking access to printable signed posters, personal messages, physical merchandise, future drops, giveaways and more which are sure to reward any Ronaldo loyalist.

One of the greatest athletes partnering with a leading blockchain platform showcases the immense popularity and potential that NFTs bring as a medium for preserving and celebrating the legacies of sporting icons, ushering in a new age of sporting memorabilia that is expected to captivate fans and collectors all over the world.

Though the NFT market in general has been rather stale, there is never a shortage of drama. But first, some big sales:

In response to Azuki’s disappointing art reveal for Azuki Elementals, the community was put to a vote as to whether or not to change the background of the artwork.

Ultimately, with ‘provenance’ as the main line of reasoning, the community decided against changing the backgrounds, which will instead be made available as an off-chain equip.

On the other hand, the Bored Ape Yacht Club has just announced the launch of an on-chain verification system to serve as an official directory for community-driven products and services.

This was met with great fanfare from the community, especially those who have carefully crafted a brand around their NFT IP. And speaking of IP…

Memeland is readying itself for the launch of its $MEME token, tied into its Memeland project and Captainz NFTs.

Disgraced influencer Beanie was very vocal about his perceived success of $MEME in current market situations…

…which was met by a parroted response from Ray Chan (9GAGCEO) himself:

As I said at the start of the section - never a dull day in NFT-land!

Thanks for popping in today, we hope you have a great couple days while we curate the next edition, take care!

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DISCLAIMER:

None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.